Marvel Comics General

Y'know, the actual "death" part of Mettle's death doesn't really bug me. I don't know much about him, but being self-sacrificing seems well within his character. It's why he died that bothered me: it was a pretty blatant admission that nobody had any idea what to do with him anymore.

I enjoyed Arcade's death, and I wonder now if that was the plan from Day 1.

They even made sure to point out how Arcade's whole "I'll prove I'm good enough to beat the X-Men and Avengers by murdering a bunch of untrained kiddies" plan never made any sense.

I think it was in the planning stages towards the end of Arena as they prepped for Undercover. Arcade fulfilled his role as antagonist and we're now dealing with the Masters of Evil, so he's not needed anymore so why not have Hazmat blast him away?

And while I'm disappointed Eli's not going to be in the YA-Original Sin thingie, I'm glad it's not another Wiccan-centered story.

So, what does everyone think of the abundance of Alternate Universes recently? The Uncanny Avengers are in one, WATXM is dealing with one, there's the various alternate Earths the Illuminati is trying to stop, and that's not even getting into Age of Ultron, Battle for the Atom, X-Termination... Was this all a consequence of Age of Ultron breaking time, or did a bunch of writers just coincidentally want to do alternate universe stories at the same time?

I am guessing it's part consequences of Age of Ultron, but on a meta-level, it gives more writers more freedom to do what they want with their characters without stepping on someone else's toes. Marvel Now has been phenomenally tight in terms of characters being in their own playgrounds, with logical reasons why other heroes aren't around.

Arcade's death doesn't really please me. I always liked Arcade - I thought he was a fun character. I'm hoping that when he's inevitably resurrected in a couple years, he'll stay fun. It was the concept behind Arena that I objected to, not the use of Arcade for it.

And his death is very clearly meant to be a Moral Event Horizon, at least for Hazmat. She murdered him in cold blood. He was defeated. He was subdued, no longer a threat, and she nuked him. This is different from Wonder Woman killing Maxwell Lord, because that was a situation where it was the only way to stop him.

I'm also very annoyed that Hazmat is basically no longer Hazmat. The character I loved in Academy is gone, and I'm not going to be getting her back, any more than Mettle will be returning from the dead. It pisses me off what Hopeless has done to characters I loved.

I'm just glad he didn't get his hands on Finesse. Even though she was actually the one member of Academy who was willing to kill.

On a more pleasant note, however . . .

Original Sin #0 was great. Like, a genuinely great comic. Obviously, it tells us nothing of what Original Sin as a whole will be like. But Waid did a great job. The issue was crazy, and really emotionally effective. Just a really nice story.

re: Wondy and Max: The thing is, it was played the same way. It was made explicitly clear that there were no nonlethal ways of stopping Max, and yet his death was still used for a "heroes don't kill" aesop. As Arcade's doubtless will be, too.

There are differences, however.

Wonder Woman comes from a warrior culture that sees absolutely nothing immoral about killing an opponent in battle. She's not like Superman or Batman or other superheroes - she was raised to be willing to kill without hesitation or remorse if the situation calls for it.

Hazmat, on the other hand, comes from a culture that's uncomfortable with killing, even in self-defence. We may accept it as occasionally necessary, but we see it as almost always being regrettable. She was raised to believe that killing is wrong.

But the big difference is the situations. Wonder Woman was in a situation where the only way to stop Maxwell was to kill him. Otherwise, the mind-controlled Superman would keep fighting her, and he would continue along his path of evil conquest and shit. He was an immediate and ongoing threat, and Wonder Woman killed him in the heat of battle because she had no other option available.

Arcade had been subdued. He was no longer a threat. Hazmat murdered him. And she chose to murder him, in cold blood, because she wanted to.

Wonder Woman killing Maxwell may not have been something superheroes do, but it was something a warrior does. Hazmat killing Arcade was something a vigilante murderer does. Wonder Woman would be brought to court for her actions, and would be acquitted. Hazmat would be sent to prison.

Picked up Original Sin #0 today, and enjoyed it. Not quite sure what to say. It had some nice touching moments and no doubt set up the Watcher's character in a way that we'll be feeling for his death next issue.

Also, Sam's such a fun character. Is gonna be sad when Marvel eventually cancels his ongoing.

To change the topic completely, I decided to take a look through the full listing of Marvel's July solicits. My thoughts:

100th Anniversary X-Men list as writer "Jen Van." I'm assuming that's Jen Van Meter, in which case, awesome. I like her. She's good. She hasn't had a chance to do much big stuff for Marvel yet, but she's done a fair bit of small stuff here and there, and it's always good.

Deadpool vs. X-Force? Ugh, another damned Deadpool mini?

Dazzler's going to be in Dazzler? I wonder if it's real dazzler or Mystique Dazzler.

From the Rocket Raccoon #1 solicit: "the authorities are not the only one on his TAIL! (We’ll definitely be overusing that pun!)" That made me laugh. I actually kinda hope they slip that pun into every single Rocket Raccoon solicit, calling attention to it every single time, as a running gag.

The Uncanny Avengers #22 cover looks like it might be an homage to the cover of X-Men #1, but reversed a bit. I'm wondering if it actually is an homage, or if it's just my imagination.

For the cover to Secret Avengers #5, two things grabbed my attention. First, Spider-Woman hanging upside down. It amused me. Second, the aquarium at the bottom has fish versions of Wolverine and Colossus. Awesome.

Avengers World (fuck that title - not the book itself, just the title, because fuck that obnoxiously forced meme) #9 will be focused on Cannonball and Sunspot. And . . . it looks like it's basically going to be a comedic relief issue. Sigh.

Black Widow #8 will have Winter Soldier. Nice. That should be very interesting, given she had her memories of him wiped.

For All-New X-Men, it looks like Angel's going to start getting some focus. That's nice. I look forward to seeing if Bendis can make Angel not so lame. Because Angel is so totally, totally lame.

X-Force #7: Domino! Woot!

And it looks like my July Marvel pull list will be 17-21 titles. Two issues of All-New X-Factor, two of All-New X-Men, two of Uncanny X-Men, two of X-Men, New Warriors, Rocket Raccoon, She-Hulk, Captain Marvel, Mighty Avengers, Spider-Man 2099, Ms. Marvel, All-New Ghost Rider and Silver Surfer are all definites. I haven't decided yet whether to add X-Force to my pull list - I think I probably will. That would put me at 18. 100th Anniversary X-Men is a strong maybe - I do like Jen Van Meter. Storm is a maybe - I'm thinking it'll depend on whether it's an ongoing or a mini. If it's an ongoing, I'll buy it. If it's a mini, I won't. And finally, whether I buy Amazing X-Men will depend on how well Yost and Kyle do on #8, making that one a maybe, but right now, I'm guessing I'll hold off on buying it, at least at first. So, assuming 20 titles at an average of $4.50 each (my local comic shop adds 50 cents to the cover price), that's $90, on just Marvel titles. Plus I'll have My Little Pony comics. So I'll end up spending more than $100 on comics in July.

Yeesh.

edited 24th Apr '14 2:14:07 PM by Tiamatty

Yeah it was really really well done. Its a shame Waid isn't doing the rest of the event.

I was thinking of picking up Cyclops and wondering if Rucka can make Scott not such a massive weenie. I loved his Batwoman run so maybe he can make the character workable.

I'll probably be alongside you after plopping down $47+ for the first Alien Costume volume.

edited 23rd Apr '14 8:39:59 PM by ScarletCajun

I've always felt that the people who think of Cyclops as a weenie are the people who've read the least of him. He's never been a weenie. He's a control freak, he's not big on displaying his emotions, but he's far from a weenie.

Oddly, even though Scott's my second-favourite character - behind only Kitty - I doubt I'll buy his solo title. I know Greg Rucka will tell an entertaining story, but the concept doesn't really grab my attention, and Rucka's not one of my must-buy writers. (For example, Iron Man's not someone I'm really passionate about, but Kieron Gillen is someone I'll almost always buy. Except when he writes Wolverine. No one can make me give a shit about Wolverine.)

I just hope that rucka can give him more emotion than jean and ???. although those were his default emotions in the comics too for a time so...

I always liked Cyclops and I always felt the weenie/boring label never fit. I guess compared to Wolverine he is.

I don't really care for a Teen Cyclops ongoing when I have Uncanny running alongside it.

Yeah, no. I've read lots with him, I just find him to be boring as shit. Hopefully Rucka can change that and make him interesting.

I'm also realizing I'm finding all the "classified" solicits to be immensely effin' annoying.

Heh. I saw a thread about Undercover at /co/ and they were discussing something amusing that I've never heard of before: the "Sexy Lamp Test." Basically, what it says is if you can replace a given female character with the sexy lamp from A Christmas Story without changing the plot, you can be pretty sure she's just there to provide T&A.

Which character were they lamping?

It came out of a discussion about how all the girls seem to have gone up three bra sizes between Arena and Undercover. I think they were specifically talking about Deathlocket.

Hmmm, well she did rescue the others while they were tied up I think.

Uh... how old is Deathlocket supposed to be? Because previously she always seemed to look around, like, ten or eleven.

edited 24th Apr '14 5:42:12 PM by ScarletCajun

Deathlocket is 14. I'm not sure why the artist drew all the females with huge breasts, it was distracting.

I suppose because they were in fancy dresses. Women in fancy dresses have big breasts.

Say, has anyone ever gone into detail on religion in the MU? Because I'd imagine it'd be at least as screwy as the legal system, due to, y'know, every religion being right and all. At the very least, I'd imagine the fact that the renowned hero Thor really is that Thor would be hard to keep under wraps? And there are beings more powerful than gods, too - have we ever seen a Galactist, Beyonderist, Eternityist or Tribunalist anywhere?

edited 24th Apr '14 6:42:46 PM by HamburgerTime